Middlesex feels “Devine” heading into 2024-25 with state’s No. 2 returning returning scorer

There’s no doubt basketball is a team sport, but sometimes there’s that one individual that makes the team go.

At Middlesex, that player is Jess Devine.

The second-highest scoring girls’ basketball returnee in all of New Jersey is back for her senior year with the Blue Jays, and they are looking to fly high in 2024-25 before she heads off to East Stroudsburg University..

Last season, Devine poured in 723 points – just four fewer than Madison’s Charlotte Tuhy, the state’s top returning scorer – for an average 23.3 points per game, and she scored in double figures in all 31 contests she played in a year ago.

With 1,576 career points, she should reach the 2,000 point mark this year, but she already is the all-time leading scorer in school history, boys or girls. She passed Brian Feath’s boys’ mark of 1,322 years ago, as well as the previous girls’ record holder, Tiana Mayer, who graduated in 2009 with 1,471 in the scoring column.

Last year was the first for head coach Stew Lester, who took over following the retirement of Kevin Harper, one of the all-time greats in the state. And Devine says it has been a pleasure playing for both coaches. Her first two seasons in the program were under Harper’s tutelage.

And while Devine could play anywhere, she’s happy to “stay home” and play for her small, hometown public school, noting there’s a lot of pride in Middlesex, and she’s all about making sure that name stays on the map in New Jersey high school sports.

Middlesex graduates two other significant contributors in swing Jaclyn DeShields and post McKenna Healey, but senior Lexi Demeter returns as well, along with other key players like Taylor Lawrence and Armani Nguestop.